“Okay, yeah, that makes sense. But couldn’t we just threaten it?”
“No, because when we failed to retaliate, we would lose our credibility in deterring the real thing.”
“That’s true. But I guess I just wish there was something we could do to stop these other attacks. So what other reasons are there for limiting the plan to nonconventional attacks?”
“Well, obviously the converse of what I just said about conventional attacks being decentralized is that I believe a strike with a weapon of mass destruction would require the participation of al-Qaeda’s central leadership. Therefore, they control whether it happens or not. It may also require the cooperation of at least one of the more fanatical Muslim nations to obtain the materials and the know-how to construct a weapon. So far, those nations have not participated in the War on Terrorism. We want and need their cooperation to bring this nightmare to an end.”
“So in all likelihood, things will just continue as normal with the usual number of bombings, murders, and assassinations by terrorist groups.”
“Yeah, they probably will. Muslims will continue to lash out at the West. They’ll continue to riot when they hear a rumor that the Qur’an has been flushed down a toilet, or when cartoonists draw a caricature of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. Nothing in the near term is going to stop that. You have to understand the mindset of the Muslim world.”
“And what is that?”
“Muslims look around and they see that their society has been left behind. The cultural, scientific, and economic progress of the West stands out in stark contrast to the poverty and mediocrity of most Muslim countries. We have a wonderful standard of living, and quite frankly, theirs sucks.”
“Lots of people live in poverty, but they don’t go around murdering everybody who doesn’t.”
“That’s true, but let me finish. Because of their lowly position in the world, they have a kind of inferiority complex. If you look around, there’s no real cutting edge technology or scientific advancements being made in Muslim countries. There’s nothing recognized by the rest of the world as being ‘best-in-class’ that young Muslims can point to with pride and say, ‘That was invented here,’ or ‘We make that here.’”
“Oh come on, George, there must be something. Besides, you’re judging them based on your criteria. They may not care about your criteria; they may be very proud of the things they make and do.”
“Hey look. Back in the Dark Ages, the Muslim world was the epitome of world civilization. Today, they’re unquestionably the bottom. Although there are lots of tremendously intelligent individuals who happen to be Muslim, Muslim nations are not known for great universities; you don’t hear of Muslim countries doing cutting-edge research to cure diseases; there are no great Muslim astronomers discovering new worlds; no Muslim physicists discovering the true nature of physical matter. On the economic side, there are no great Muslim financial institutions; no great Muslim manufacturers — there are no great cars, airplanes, computers, TVs, or goods of any type coming out of Muslim countries, except maybe rugs. Most Muslim countries don’t even have patent offices or recognize international treaties guaranteeing inventors the rights to their inventions. Personal ingenuity and economic opportunity are what made the West great. Without education and a system for promoting individual ingenuity, Muslims are stuck in a cycle of poverty.”
“Well whose fault is that?” Leona asked. “My impression is that there are so many things the Qur’an prohibits, they will never get out of that cycle. You know they can’t even set up a financial system that provides loans for businesses because it’s against Islamic law to charge interest. It seems as if the Qur’an tries to keep them in the sixth century, when it was written.”
“They do have some cultural hurdles to overcome, but like most people at the bottom end of the social ladder, instead of looking inward, they blame their condition on others. In this case, they blame the West. To them, colonial Western powers invaded and ruled over Muslim countries for a hundred years, and today those same powers bring all their military might to Muslim lands to guarantee their access to oil. The Muslim people receive a mere pittance in exchange for what is rapidly becoming the world’s most valuable commodity. So sure, they strike out at the West.”
“You make a good argument for their anger,” said Leona.
“They are in much the same position that African-Americans were in back in the nineteen fifties and sixties when angry blacks rioted and burned large portions of American cities. But in America, we worked through it. It took a while, and things aren’t perfect yet, but they are certainly a lot better. Many African-Americans are at parity with whites in their jobs and social level in American society.”
“I don’t know about Muslims, though.” Leona mused. “It seems right now like the Muslim world is in a death spiral — a spiral of poverty and rage, which is just sinking them lower and lower. More and more of them seem to be getting sucked into it. How do they end it?”
“They’ll end the death spiral in one of two ways: the same way African-Americans ended it, or in total destruction. It’s their choice. African-Americans ended it one small step at a time, through education and through leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., who preached nonviolent resolution of conflicts. Young Muslims have a choice. The peaceful ones just have to get involved.”
“I haven’t seen anybody like Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Muslim world.”
“I haven’t either,” said George. “But I’m confident there’s one out there. Like I said, there are many highly intelligent Muslims, and some of them must realize that new leadership is needed. It doesn’t take much of a genius to see that the strategy of militant leaders calling for attacks on the West has been a dismal failure. Great leaders do not display leadership by continuing to follow failed tactics just because their predecessors did.”
George walked over to his bookcase and began searching for a book.
“What are you looking for?”
“I remember Mark Twain said something once that is appropriate here, and he said it much better than I can.”
“Mark Twain wrote about Muslims?”
George laughed. “Not specifically, but he did write about humanity, and you know, we’re all human, even Muslims! Ah! Here it is.” George pulled a well-worn paperback from the case and leafed through it until he found the quotation. He read it to Leona: “Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.”
“Yeah, well they’re pretty loyal to the petrified strategy of militancy,” said Leona. “Something serious has to came along and wake them up.”
“That’s true, and I would have hoped an event as devastating as the attack on Washington would have made everybody stop and think. But unfortunately it hasn’t. However, there must be those among the Muslim population who realize how fortunate they are that Jonathon Thornton inherited the presidency. I’m sure you remember there was a sizable contingent in the Philadelphia Congress who wanted to nuke the entire Muslim world back to the Stone Age.”
“Oh yeah, and for a while it looked like they would prevail. Emotions were understandably running pretty high.”